Topics

Suicide rates in Canada are increasing for girls aged 10 to 19 but decreasing for boys of the same age, according to an article published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Suicide rates in Canada are increasing for girls aged 10 to 19 but decreasing for boys of the same age, according to an article published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

In 2008, suicide was the second leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of 10 and 34, and in previous studies, suicide rates among Canadian teens and young adults have been reported as stable over time, the article says.

Researchers from the Public Health Agency of Canada aimed to examine data on suicides in Canada and establish the pattern of suicide among Canadian young people. They examined mortality data from Statistics Canada covering each year from 1980 to 2008 and found that although the suicide rate for Canadians aged 10 to 19 decreased an average of 1% each year, the rate varied by age and sex.

And while suicide rates for boys in both the 10 to 14 and 15 to 19 age groups remained stable and declined over the 29-year period, suicide rates for girls in both age groups went up.

Suicide rates for girls aged 10 to 14 went from 0.6 per 100,000 in 1980 to 0.9 per 100,000 in 2008. Suicide rates for girls aged 15 to 19 went from 3.7 per 100,000 in 1980 to 6.2 per 100,000 in 2008.

Suffocation has become the leading method of suicide among children and adolescents of both sexes, although the study authors note that an increase in the popularity of the choking game, in which children and teens aim to induce a euphoric effect by temporarily depriving their brains of oxygen, may account for some deaths from suffocation being misclassified as suicides when they were actually deaths from a fatal round of this game.

"The prevalence and influence of the Internet and social media in the lives of young Canadians cannot be discounted in this discussion and warrants further research to understand its risks related to suicide," the study's authors conclude. "The term 'cybersuicide' has evolved to describe the numerous websites, chat rooms and blogs promoting suicide and suicidal ideation. Such sites are obviously troubling; yet, paradoxically, the Internet and social media also hold potential benefits for the prevention of suicide."